a really long post in which i update and rant and also post some pictures
life seems to be quieting down, at least at work, so i finally have time to catch up on things.
i should rant about politics, but it's too nice a day. instead, i will grouse briefly about my local paper. i've taken it for years, because it covers the local news (i dropped the l.a. times when they dropped their san diego bureau), but i seem to have less and less time to read it; the last month or so (including the time i was on vacation and home recovering from the wisdom teeth) it has just piled up unread. i've been thinking i should see if they offered a sunday-only subscription, because the tv guide comes sunday - then today they forced my hand. i was pulling the paper apart, to get the sections of interest, including the guide...but there was no guide. well, i figured, it just didn't get included in my paper, so i checked the front page for the customer service number....and found this:
TV Times now available by subscription
Beginning Sunday, the
the stuff about movie descriptions refers to the fact that they stripped the guide down a month or so ago, so it only has the program grid, nothing about the movies.
needless to say, their phone lines are clogged - after 3 tries, i finally got on hold; after waiting for 15 min to talk to a person to find out if they have a sunday-only subscription (couldn't find anything about that on their website) i left a message asking them to let me know if they had such a thing - and in the meantime, i've cancelled the paper. now, i understand that papers are hurting - but does springing something like this on your subscribers (after already antagonizing them by cutting service), right in the middle of all the news about the potential collapse of our economy, really seem like the way to build, or even maintain, subscriptions? in the meantime, guess i'll keep using tvguide on line. fortunately grilling season seems about over, so i don't need newspapers for the charcoal chimney....
--------------------------------------------
of course, despite my concerns about the economy, i'm still spending money like water. yesterday i hit plant sales with a couple of friends. we first went to the begonia society sale at balboa park - each of us bought 4 begonias (only $5 apiece!). begonias always seemed like goofy old-lady flowers, like petunias, but a few years ago i discovered rex begonias, and my eyes were opened. then my friend has gotten into begonias in a big way, and i realized how wonderful and varied the flowers can be. then she gave me some cuttings from hers to start, and they not only started and came back the next year, they survived the cats knocking over the window box they were in, and i was sold. so i got 2 rex begonias (which of course are much harder to keep alive, but one was called 'kit cat' and the other has lavender and dark red leaves, so what could i do?) and two angel-wing types, which are new to me, but seem to be doing well for my friends. then we went to quail garden's orchid sale, where i was only going to _look_, because i have a very poor record of getting orchids to rebloom (although they do with enthusiasm in my friend's garden)...and right at the entrance were some little dendrobiums on sale and marked 'easy' and i was lost. so i now have 4 new orchids (although they cost a bit more than the begonias did), and renewed enthusiasm.
-------------------------------------------
one reason i don't have time to read the paper is that i have been trying to go to the library rather than spend money on books, which means i have to actually hurry up and read the books i've acquired. right now i'm working my way through the encyclopedia of the cat. i keep hoping for one that will tell me how cats think - what, for example, do they make of showers? i opened the curtain after this morning's shower to see angelina standing outside, legs braced and an expression of deep concern. she immediately came to sniff me over, which is pretty much what she always does if she is inside when i shower. i would love to know the reason for her concern - she's experienced rain, of course she doesn't care for it, but she knows it's survivable. she doesn't seem as certain about showers. i keep meaning to take more baths, it's so entertaining to watch their complete consternation (especially when faced with bubbles)...although perhaps it's a bit cruel, to worry them so for my amusement.
-----------------------------------------
and yes, of course i've been knitting. when i was making the tank top, i kept thinking that the colorway was misnamed. it's called 'rose garden', and the picture had me thinking there were some pinks in there, but it's a yellow-orange-red blend, which i consider flamelike. while cruising through Barbara Walker's treasuries of stitches, i found no fewer than 3 patterns called candlelight or candleflame, so i put them together into a shawl, to use up the yarn i had left over from the tank. i also used the opportunity to play with adding beads - added them in at the base of each candleflame, and a few others at various places to emphasize the patterns - not real noticable (they are just seed beads), but we'll see how they work out. while i was working on the shawl, i finally got around to organizing all the patterns i've downloaded, which reminded me of one from knitty.com called 'convertible'. this is a rectangular lace shawl, and the designer made some fasteners so she could sort of pin the rectangle together to make a shrug, or to form a sort of poncho. i really liked the idea, and the shawl was coming out to be just the right size to do that, so i added a really simple crochet border with some buttonholes, and used some larger beads to make fasteners (the original designer used shanked buttons, which would have been a lot easier, but a) i didn't have any and 2) i didn't go back to check what she had done until after i crocheted the little tiny buttonholes). i ended up needing (i thought) 12 fasteners, or 24 beads (the end of the shawl has room for 6 buttonholes, so i had to make 6 on each side if i wanted to do an end-to-side connection, so of course i had to have enough to use all 6 buttonholes on each side to make 'sleeves' for a shrug, right? right.) didn't have enough beads of the same shape and color to make all of those, so some are round and amber, some are round and clear, and some are amber and a bit irregular - but they are all pretty small, so i think it will work out. now the weather just has to cool off enough to let me wear it.
and the _other_ shawl i'm making - actually a 'summer shawlette' from a free download at knitting daily. finding this pattern allowed me to go buy some yarn i had seen and loved but dismissed, because it was too expensive, and they only had 2 skeins and i didn't think i could make anything out of that. so i went back for the yarn, and they only had _one_ skein, so i got some others that match, to use for the shawl border...we'll see. the colors reminded me of a pheasant, gold and rust and a deep blue-black, but it seems to be called 'toni morrison' - well that's not a bad image either.
so: pictures!
*sigh*
well, it seems no pictures. can't remember how i did this in the past, imageshack seems to want to make it a sepate post, flickr doesn't want to give me a large version, and now i have to go do something else. in the meantime, anyone want to remind me how i can post clickable images from imageshack here? copying the thumbnail code and inserting it into the 'image' box LJ gives me doesn't work, nor does just copying the code here.
thanks.
i should rant about politics, but it's too nice a day. instead, i will grouse briefly about my local paper. i've taken it for years, because it covers the local news (i dropped the l.a. times when they dropped their san diego bureau), but i seem to have less and less time to read it; the last month or so (including the time i was on vacation and home recovering from the wisdom teeth) it has just piled up unread. i've been thinking i should see if they offered a sunday-only subscription, because the tv guide comes sunday - then today they forced my hand. i was pulling the paper apart, to get the sections of interest, including the guide...but there was no guide. well, i figured, it just didn't get included in my paper, so i checked the front page for the customer service number....and found this:
TV Times now available by subscription
Beginning Sunday, the
the stuff about movie descriptions refers to the fact that they stripped the guide down a month or so ago, so it only has the program grid, nothing about the movies.
needless to say, their phone lines are clogged - after 3 tries, i finally got on hold; after waiting for 15 min to talk to a person to find out if they have a sunday-only subscription (couldn't find anything about that on their website) i left a message asking them to let me know if they had such a thing - and in the meantime, i've cancelled the paper. now, i understand that papers are hurting - but does springing something like this on your subscribers (after already antagonizing them by cutting service), right in the middle of all the news about the potential collapse of our economy, really seem like the way to build, or even maintain, subscriptions? in the meantime, guess i'll keep using tvguide on line. fortunately grilling season seems about over, so i don't need newspapers for the charcoal chimney....
--------------------------------------------
of course, despite my concerns about the economy, i'm still spending money like water. yesterday i hit plant sales with a couple of friends. we first went to the begonia society sale at balboa park - each of us bought 4 begonias (only $5 apiece!). begonias always seemed like goofy old-lady flowers, like petunias, but a few years ago i discovered rex begonias, and my eyes were opened. then my friend has gotten into begonias in a big way, and i realized how wonderful and varied the flowers can be. then she gave me some cuttings from hers to start, and they not only started and came back the next year, they survived the cats knocking over the window box they were in, and i was sold. so i got 2 rex begonias (which of course are much harder to keep alive, but one was called 'kit cat' and the other has lavender and dark red leaves, so what could i do?) and two angel-wing types, which are new to me, but seem to be doing well for my friends. then we went to quail garden's orchid sale, where i was only going to _look_, because i have a very poor record of getting orchids to rebloom (although they do with enthusiasm in my friend's garden)...and right at the entrance were some little dendrobiums on sale and marked 'easy' and i was lost. so i now have 4 new orchids (although they cost a bit more than the begonias did), and renewed enthusiasm.
-------------------------------------------
one reason i don't have time to read the paper is that i have been trying to go to the library rather than spend money on books, which means i have to actually hurry up and read the books i've acquired. right now i'm working my way through the encyclopedia of the cat. i keep hoping for one that will tell me how cats think - what, for example, do they make of showers? i opened the curtain after this morning's shower to see angelina standing outside, legs braced and an expression of deep concern. she immediately came to sniff me over, which is pretty much what she always does if she is inside when i shower. i would love to know the reason for her concern - she's experienced rain, of course she doesn't care for it, but she knows it's survivable. she doesn't seem as certain about showers. i keep meaning to take more baths, it's so entertaining to watch their complete consternation (especially when faced with bubbles)...although perhaps it's a bit cruel, to worry them so for my amusement.
-----------------------------------------
and yes, of course i've been knitting. when i was making the tank top, i kept thinking that the colorway was misnamed. it's called 'rose garden', and the picture had me thinking there were some pinks in there, but it's a yellow-orange-red blend, which i consider flamelike. while cruising through Barbara Walker's treasuries of stitches, i found no fewer than 3 patterns called candlelight or candleflame, so i put them together into a shawl, to use up the yarn i had left over from the tank. i also used the opportunity to play with adding beads - added them in at the base of each candleflame, and a few others at various places to emphasize the patterns - not real noticable (they are just seed beads), but we'll see how they work out. while i was working on the shawl, i finally got around to organizing all the patterns i've downloaded, which reminded me of one from knitty.com called 'convertible'. this is a rectangular lace shawl, and the designer made some fasteners so she could sort of pin the rectangle together to make a shrug, or to form a sort of poncho. i really liked the idea, and the shawl was coming out to be just the right size to do that, so i added a really simple crochet border with some buttonholes, and used some larger beads to make fasteners (the original designer used shanked buttons, which would have been a lot easier, but a) i didn't have any and 2) i didn't go back to check what she had done until after i crocheted the little tiny buttonholes). i ended up needing (i thought) 12 fasteners, or 24 beads (the end of the shawl has room for 6 buttonholes, so i had to make 6 on each side if i wanted to do an end-to-side connection, so of course i had to have enough to use all 6 buttonholes on each side to make 'sleeves' for a shrug, right? right.) didn't have enough beads of the same shape and color to make all of those, so some are round and amber, some are round and clear, and some are amber and a bit irregular - but they are all pretty small, so i think it will work out. now the weather just has to cool off enough to let me wear it.
and the _other_ shawl i'm making - actually a 'summer shawlette' from a free download at knitting daily. finding this pattern allowed me to go buy some yarn i had seen and loved but dismissed, because it was too expensive, and they only had 2 skeins and i didn't think i could make anything out of that. so i went back for the yarn, and they only had _one_ skein, so i got some others that match, to use for the shawl border...we'll see. the colors reminded me of a pheasant, gold and rust and a deep blue-black, but it seems to be called 'toni morrison' - well that's not a bad image either.
so: pictures!
*sigh*
well, it seems no pictures. can't remember how i did this in the past, imageshack seems to want to make it a sepate post, flickr doesn't want to give me a large version, and now i have to go do something else. in the meantime, anyone want to remind me how i can post clickable images from imageshack here? copying the thumbnail code and inserting it into the 'image' box LJ gives me doesn't work, nor does just copying the code here.
thanks.